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I was safe within my walls.

Not even Matteo Bellandi could touch me.

I turned and strode out of the room, going to the guest room and taking a shower to scrub myself clean. Matteo didn't bother to follow me.

???

For a couple of days, the distance between Matteo and I remained firmly planted like a void. I ended every day with him inside me despite it, with him trying to force me from my shell with the intimacy of sex and the sensations only he could wring from my body.

But that's the thing about sex. It could only be intimate if I allowed him to touch more than my body, and after the way he'd betrayed me that wasn't happening.

For the first time in my life, it felt like my heart was safe from Matteo.

I hated it.

It should have been a comfort, should have reassured me I'd walk away unscathed when he decided he was finished me. Instead, it just left me feeling cold.

Alone.

Again.

So, when Matteo had suggested I could go to Indulgence with Sadie while he handled some business with Lino, I jumped at the chance. I was desperate to get out of that house, desperate to have some semblance of freedom. Going dancing with my friend was a welcome change.

I didn’t always expect Matteo to have me surrounded by security.

I never expected to be trapped in the VIP area where he could watch me from his tower of an office.

I decided right then and there as I watched that I really, really hated any offices where Matteo was concerned. Watching brunette after brunette strut her way up those steps and act like she had a right to Matteo, listening to them tell Simon that he'd want to see them.

That they're special.

Newsflash.

They weren't. Not even one of them.

After the first few, Simon took to pointing me out and informing the girls that Matteo was spoken for with a live-in girlfriend, and just like that, women glared at me from every corner of the VIP. When I glanced down at the regular part of the club, for ordinary nobodies like me, I wished I could go be anonymous with them. Until I saw women pointing up at me with harsh expressions and speaking in one another's ears.

"Why am I here?" I asked Sadie, flopping onto an empty seat.

"Beats me. This sucks," she groaned. They allowed Sadie to go down to the dance floor. Just not me.

"What the fuck is the point of a club if I can't dance?" I snarled, catching Simon's attention.

He shrugged at me with a smile. "Boss' orders, Ms. Torres."

I groaned, flopping back against the cushions dramatically. A new girl wandered into the VIP, easily admitted access for whatever reason.

If I had to guess?

It was because she was gorgeous.

Inhumanly gorgeous.

I wanted to hate her but staring at her clear blue eyes and chestnut locks only gave me a different idea. I waved her over, patting the seat next to me. She took it with wide eyes, seeming entirely grateful to be saved the awkwardness of being on her own.

"Thank you!" she gushed, perching next to me.

"Have you ever met Matteo Bellandi?" I whispered, and Sadie eyed me curiously. Simon's eyes rested on mine in fixation too, but I didn't care.


Tags: Adelaide Forrest Bellandi Crime Syndicate Romance